James to give Sharks extra bite

Sale have moved to shore up their acute lack of options behind the scrum by signing former Wales and British Lions star Dafydd James on a short-term contract. The hugely experienced winger/centre has been lured north from Magners League giants Cardiff Blues and could step straight into a depleted Sharks squad for Sunday's vital Guinness Premiership trip to Wasps.

Sale have moved to shore up their acute lack of options behind the scrum by signing former Wales and British Lions star Dafydd James on a short-term contract.

The hugely experienced winger/centre has been lured north from Magners League giants Cardiff Blues and could step straight into a depleted Sharks squad for Sunday's vital Guinness Premiership trip to Wasps.

With Mark Cueto and Mathew Tait both away on England duty, Andy Tuilagi out for the rest of the season with a broken arm and Lee Thomas and Chris Bell also struggling with injury, the Sharks' options at centre and wing have been severely restricted.

So Sale boss Kingsley Jones has moved to try and bolster his back-line by drafting in the 34-year-old James who, in a glittering international career, won 48 caps for Wales as well as playing in all three Tests for the British Lions during their 2001 tour to Australia.

He is also hugely experienced at club level and, as well as having played for the likes of Cardiff and Llanelli Scarlets in his native Wales, the Zambian-born James also comes with the added bonus of having already had a taste of life in the Premiership having had a spell at Harlequins.

"It's great for us to have a centre and wing of Dafydd's quality on board." said the Edgeley Park director of rugby. "He's desperate to play. If he wanted to stay at the Blues and take the money he could easily have done so.

"But by coming to us he's making a commitment, making an effort and will probably be out of pocket as well.

"That says everything about the guy and that's why I moved to sign him.

"He has been pestering people to play. He's played the last two weeks for the Blues with it being the Six Nations period and it's great to have him on board with us.

"And by signing Dafydd it will put some pressure on certain positions and also relieve a bit of a selection headache in the centre."

Meanwhile, Jones has moved to allay fears that forward Kristian Ormsby's injury curse has struck again.

The powerful Kiwi, whose spell at Sale has been blighted by injury, came off midway through the first half shortly after scoring Sale's lone try during Saturday's 40-7 Anglo-Welsh Cup hammering at Bath with what looked like a recurrence of the torn calf that had ruled him out since Christmas.

However, Jones revealed that taking Ormsby off had been purely a precautionary measure after the 29 year-old felt his calf tightening up.

"It was always going to be the plan that Kristian only played for 40 minutes anyway," said Jones.